Hurt
by ALifeWithNoCreativity
Summary: How many times does a single human being have to be hurt in order for them to realize that their minds need to start being rational? I'll be honest, it took me lots of times. But once you come to your wits, your story starts to differ.
1. Chapter One

How many times does it take to get hurt for a single human being to realize that the person or thing is not right for them? In my opinion, every human being I've ever known has taken multiple blows to the word "hurt". Everybody will experience it, you, me, some girl you met on the way home, some guy you knew from school - everyone. Everyone will get hurt eventually and it's really just inevitable.

But, there's one question straining: Do people enjoy getting hurt now a days? It happens more often than not.

It was like any other day. I was coming home from work at the cafe, safely seating myself in my car, blasted the radio and tried to keep my mind away from anything and everything but work (somewhere I'd rather not be for seven hours of the day). But, in all honesty, there was something a bit off around town. You see, New York was a busy state, had busy cities - everything, but it was rare for you to see the streets so clearly, to be able to go through traffic so easily and slyly (really, it wasn't like there was traffic at all). Even when everyone's off work or if there were to be some crazy city epidemic, this place just wouldn't be like it was. So, why was it being like this now?

"You're just being crazy, Ema," I told myself, "You still aren't used to this place yet. Give it some time."

It was partially true. I'd come from a rather interesting town in Japan called Fukuoka. You could say it was a little like New York City, so maybe I should be used to all of the hussle and bussle around here, but I was use to it in my home. This place wasn't my home, it was somewhere I transferred for college, work, and maybe to start a brand new life. But, with everything that's been going on lately, I don't know if the "starting a brand new life" thing is working out incredibly like I was wanting it to.

Why you might ask? It's simple; when I arrived to this country a year or two ago, I knew absolutely nothing about it. I had to learn the language, had to learn the everyday life, had to learn everything on my own. For an eighteen year old newbie to the American dream and American college's, you could say "there was a lot on my plate". Although, for a while, I'd begun to get use to everything. It all started to seem easy, and I settled down into New York Medical College where I was studying to become a doctor, to do things involving... Doctor's and Doctorette's. It was something I'd wanted to do all my life and once I'd found out that New York had the perfect college, I was all for it; quickly got settled in, but I was leaving everything I'd ever known, and I knew that that was something I'd have to quickly get used to.

As for the "brand new life" scenario, there were plenty of bumps and humps and leaps all over the place. I'd actually run into a couple guys. I'd liked talking to them and some of them were absolutely dreamy. One of them (the one I haven't been able to keep away from my mind) was Cooro. It had turned out that he'd come from the exact city in Japan that I had come from and I found that incredibly fascinating. The other guy (whom I wasn't with for as long as Cooro) was Keane. Keane had come from the city Nagasaki in Japan. He was very dreamy; had beautiful blue eyes, nice, short, dark brown hair, was tall and very nice, but (there comes that word, 'but') I didn't feel a connection with him like I did with Cooro. I guess you could say it was because Cooro and I had come from the same place, but I wanted to avoid that reason as much as possible. But, it was still there, nonetheless.

Speaking of Cooro and my "brand new life", Cooro and I had also been going to the same college for the same thing. We didn't share a dorm or anything, in fact, for this college, you really just had to live in the vicinity of the college. It was kind of nice, so, Cooro and I bought an apartment in the exact same apartment complex so we could see each other whenever we wanted and we could go to college courses together. Keane went to NYU, so I rarely got to see him (even less after we'd broken up), and he was one of Cooro's buddies (really the only reason he was with Cooro the night us three met). Anyway, Cooro and I would hang out a lot in our apartments and one night, he'd leaned in and kissed me (after we'd known each other for a while), and I had kissed him back. Afterwards, he asked me to be his and, of course, I had said yes. Why wouldn't I? Cooro was a very stunning man, beautiful, short, jet black hair, dark green eyes, tall, and his personality was absolutely adorable. After we started dating for a couple months, school and work had started to get in the way of our relationship; Cooro studied his work, I went to work and studied and everything seemed to get in the way of everything but the relationship. So, when we were able to finally meet up again, we broke it off. It was a mutual agreement, but it still hurt nonetheless.

It's been a year since the break up and even though it was mutual (like I said), it's been hurting be ever since. Cooro was the main attraction in my life ever since I came to America and without the Ema and Cooro duo, my life had just started to feel a little glum. It's like, without Cooro (and I know this sounds pathetic), nothing makes any sense, it's like nothing means anything. And, ever since I was a young, young teenager, I said I was never going to get hurt like I saw others around me getting hurt, but the main cause of my pain wasn't my fault or Cooro's fault.

I'm hurt because life got in the way of something I enjoyed... Yet again.


	2. Chapter 2

As my mind started to float forward to reality again, so did the city. It was almost like I was bringing life back to the people, but even I knew that that wasn't possible. I couldn't change thousands of people's minds to actually come out and make the city the way it was again, that just wasn't going to happen. Nonetheless, it was kind of cool to watch - people started coming out of their apartments, out of the local cafe's, out of grocery stores, anything or anywhere they'd been originally. The streets started to flood again, the road started to fill with cars, parks started to fill with children and their families, the pool from the hot summer heat started to feel with children, young teens, young adults, parents and others - it was nice, to see the city finally coming back to the living again.

I reached my apartment complex, rounding a couple corners to get into the parking lot. I parked into my usual spot (right next to Cooro's corvet), got out and just stared at Cooro's car. Cooro and I had had many talks in that car, many kisses, many hugs, multiple arguments, but nothing going beyond a passionate lip lock (something I'd been missing a lot lately).

I sighed, pushed myself off the car, grabbed my purse off the hood, and started to make my way up the ramp to go into the apartment building lobby. I placed my hand on the banister, feeling a slight dampness to it. I lifted my fingers up from the railing and looked at the liquid placed at my hands.

"It must've rained while I was working in the back," I mumbled, "I didn't hear it, though."

I shrugged it off and wiped the water on the back of my jean shorts, walked a little farther, and swung open the glass door to the apartments. I buzzed in my number on the calculator-like keypad, the doors to the main lobby swung open (confirming that it was an _actual _apartment number), and I stepped inside.

"Ah, good day, Miss Usaki," The door handler (one whom makes sure the door numbers are correct) said to me with a smile on his face, "Good day I suppose?"

I shrugged and smiled at him, "It was alright, Arthur. That's all I can say."

He nodded, "I know that feelin'."

I smiled once again, nodded at him, and made my way toward the elevator. I clicked the up arrow and waited for the sliding metal doors to open. When they did, I wasn't expecting anyone to be inside. Especially someone I'd only briefly come into contact with lately.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I can wait for the next one." I spoke quietly.

Cooro looked at me, his eyes slightly wide and shook his head lightly, "No, i-it's okay," He stammered, "You can ride in here with me. It's no big deal."

I nodded slowly and stepped inside.

_Please don't talk. Please don't talk. Please don't talk. Shut up. Shut up. Shut up. Shut up. Shhh. Shhh. Shhh. Shhhh. _

"So,"

_Oh no. _

"How's work been going?" Cooro asked quietly.

"Fine," I smiled lightly, "And your studies?"

"They've been doing well," He smiled lightly, too, "Doctor Corrs says I'll be operating like a pro by the time I graduate."

I giggled quietly, "That's wonderful, Cooro."

"Yeah," He said quietly with a smile, "How about you? What about you and Doctor Shei?"

I shrugged, "Doctor Shei says I'm doing well. I'm actually proud of myself, seemingly because of work and all I haven't really been able to study very hard," I smiled kindly up at him, "But I bet you have."

"Loads of time," He chuckled quietly, "But... It's not like I don't want a job, it's just-"

I shook my head, "It's okay, really. I'm not your mother."

_We can't have these types of arguments anymore, Cooro, remember? _

Cooro's expression changed on his face and he stared at his feet like they were the most interesting things in the entire world. I, too, stared at things other than him and tried to rid my mind of the conversation we'd just had (the whole situation, really).

It made me feel bad that I had to avoid Cooro this way. I really just wanted to hop into his arms and tell him all about my day, like we used to, but I know I can't anymore. Cooro might have moved on, he might have someone new. I don't blame him, though. He can have whomever he desires, I'm not someone to tell him who he can and cannot have and I'm certainly not like girls that have an attitude as in, if I can't have him no other girl can - no, I'm not going to restrain him like that. He has a life. I have a life. We both have lives and we deserve to live them as freely as we can.

"Have you found anyone else?" I asked, the questioning nitpicking at my brains.

"No," Cooro said, almost as if he were embarrassed, "I can't find anyone like you."

His words struck me, but I didn't have long to sit there in the awkward situation for long. The elevator doors slid open and I quickly walked out the doors, down the top floor's long, long hallway and reached my apartment door: **132**. I grabbed my key card from my purse, slid it in the key holder and swung the door open. Before I could walk inside, someone grabbed my right wrist and tugged me gently back out.**  
**

"I still can't stop thinking about you," Cooro whispered to me as he looked me in the eyes.

I pulled my wrist away from him, weakly smiled and slammed the door behind me as I ran into my apartment. I threw my purse down on the coffee table, flipped my van's off my feet, and plopped myself down on my couch. The AC kicked on as soon as I'd walked in so the rush of cool air fled onto my body, creating goose bumps to rise upon my tannish skin and the heat that I remembered outside, seemed to disperse into thin air.

My mind started to wonder toward what had just happened in the elevator: why was Cooro being so kind toward me? Why was he talking to me again? Normally he would just smile at me, nod, wave, whatever he found to be non-verbal, but today... It seemed like he was being completely different and I couldn't figure out why. Was it because he missed me? Was it because, for once, he could finally feel the emotions reverberating off of my body into the air, making him understand? Was it because he could see how I was feeling? Or was it because he was just being brutally honest and was just as hurt about all of this as I was? The question will remain unanswered until the next time I see him.

If he can confront me, I can confront him, too.

* * *

A couple hours later, after I had finished making dinner for myself, there was a knock at my door. I jumped up off the couch, jogged over to the door, looked through the peep hole and saw Cooro standing there.

_What does he want now? _

I slowly opened the door and lightly smiled up at him, "Hi, Cooro."

"Hi, Ema." He said, smiling down at me. He didn't seem nervous whatsoever.

"Did you need something? I was just in the middle of eating-"

"No," He cut me off, "Just wanted to come over and hang out."

"Cooro, you know this isn't good for u-"

"It's not going to hurt anything." He chuckled and walked passed me.

"It's going to hurt me." I whispered to myself.


End file.
